That's better lads. After last week's capitulation (one of the worst away days for years with no cohesion and, in the last 20 minutes, no effort) MP made a brave selection. Hojberg was immense all day, constantly winning the ball and moving it on with simple play. Tadic was better than at any time this season and Ward-Prowse did really well. The positivity throughout the team was infectious and I don't think it's a coincidence that Redmond was dropped. Austin took his goals well but was pretty poor in the first half, missing a couple of sitters and frequently being behind the play. He did so much better second half with much better positional play. Boufal and Bertrand clicked together so much more than Redmond and Bertrand. I don't want to carried away (it was Everton, after all) but if we can take that spirit to Citeh on Wednesday, who knows. And there's a real chance of winning at Bournemouth. Romeu's been off colour this season and he may struggle to get back in. I suspect Hojberg and Ward-Prowse will miss out with the return of Lemina and Romeu but they'd feel rightly unlucky as both did so well today. And Hoedt is growing into a top class defender with some outrageous cross field passes as well as solid defence. Even Forster started to look more comfortable and confident. As I say, I don't want to get carried away but that kind of performance can only be a big boost to the squad's confidence.

4

A thoroughly enjoyable game. Charlie Austin's first league start of the season and it was like a new beginning for the whole team. What a difference it made to have a goal scorer up front today instead of Shane Long. Austin not only scored 2 goals and hit the woodwork, he was contantly getting into scoring positions and really deserved 3 or 4. He terrorised the Everton defence. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the season now with Austin up front, scoring goals. You can see the effect losing your goal scorer can have on an entire team from how badly Everton have been affected by the loss of Lukaku.

5

Pretty much great performances all round today - for the first time this season. Usually we are carrying a few and that made all the difference today.
PEH was perhaps a forced change with Lemina coming back from injury and Romeu suspended, but he was extremely positive, a good tackler and probably had the most passes today - most of which were FORWARD !!
Surprised that Tadic was selected after Liverpool debacle and general form this season, but he put in a decent showing today and capped it with the opener and an assist.
Glad that Austin was the preferred choice up top and it was justified with the goals. With him in the box, more crosses were put in and the general approach play was more positive. Ok so he didn't make the runs that Gab is capable of, or that Long demonstrated at the end when Everton were stretched, but he was always in the box creating havoc among the now weakest defence in the league.
Great to see so many goals - first 4 home goal haul since Palace 4-1 under Koeman ? - and good to see Tadic finally score, as well as Davis. Could and should have had a few more with Austin hitting the post, putting another well over and with different choices, Long could have been in a few times at the end, or squared it to JWP instead of shooting.

Atmosphere was so much better walking back from the ground and everyone was smiling and chatting :o)

3

Finally, MP did what he schould have done two months earlier - to put someone in the box who can get at the end of crosses, when you have a Team that good on the wings...
It's no coincidence that Tadic looked a lot better than in most games this season as did Bertrand and Cedric, who all now had someone to aim the crosses to. Would have been even braver to start Gabbiadini as well instead of JWP, but okay...
At least we saw what the "forgotten" Players (well, just by MP), are capable of, cause Austin did what everybody hoped he would do, and Hojbjerg was immense...

4

Well done Saints thrashed European Champions Everton. Let's get carried away when the team finally doesn't play shiiite. No Redmond or Mr Slow. MOPE will revert to type and put Romeu in, instead of Hojbjerg, clearly showing how cr*p he is, as a Manager.

0

match rating 4/10
extra time 20/10

0

Two lessons.

1. Fans. Even if we are second best on the field and deservingly two nil behind at 90 mins, stay for the last few mins of extra time

2. Teams. Even at two nil up at 90 mins don’t go to sleep, don’t think this game is won. 9 times out of teen it will be but that tenth time could cost you 2 or 3 points.

I also think this point won could be crucial come avoiding the drop in 5 months time

0

We were dire but fluked a draw and need to build on that. Poor going forward and on the ball and never really looked like we had any tactical plan.

0

Was it Brian Clough who said 'if football was meant to be played in the air, they would have put goalposts in the clouds'??

0

Great effort from Saints but suprise with the starting line up, it seemed to work though.The free kick for the first goal you could see it was going in on the way we lined up for it.Still a valiant effort all the same.Think we can get a result Sunday.

2